Fun Friday Resources

Let’s do sound and sound effects!

From our good friends over at Open Culture, an article on a set of twelve music boxes, featuring compositions by Karlheinz Stockhausen, a composer not usually associated with the tinkly. These are his depictions of the twelve signs of the zodiac, and if it weren’t for the charming nature of the music boxes, the 12-tone pieces would be about as opaque as Stockhausen’s usual fare.

If you were to need a sound effect from an extinct technology — looking at you, dial phones and modems — they’ve got you covered over at Conserve the Sound. You can search by decade and by technology. (The site seems to be trying to be in English and German at the same time.)

Over on YouTube, you can find background music for your videos. The link is a playlist of videos and of course I haven’t listened to them all, but the first one has some very nice little bits. This is a great place to go when you’re tired of waiting for me to compose the intro to your podcast. You will need some tech savvy to snag these from YouTube, but there are plenty of tutorials out there. You could start here.

Finally, the British Library has an entire library of sounds. You may have to search harder, but the quality is first rate. Here, have a nightingale.

UPDATE: Open Culture just posted this. It will drive you nuts. In a good way.